The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-10-08
Keep a Scrap Book.

ADVISE every boy OF Slrl 10 keep
scrap book. If you are 20 or Is or 20
years old, keep a scrap book. Let me
tell you why and how Hundreds of
things you see that you would like to
keep, but if you lay them away you will
never be able to find them when you want
them. When l was boy did not have
sense enough to keep scrap books. l Ibegan
some but did not keep on long with them.
My memory was good, but 1 can now
remember many things that l can't recall
What that means is this: remember
reading beautiful piece of poetry, of
which two or three lines l can call up, but
the whole | can't recollect. In some cases
l do not know the name of the writer.
have seen many fine pictures in maya
zines and papers that would now be valua-
tle and interesting. Some cut out, but
they are lost. Charming stories, wise re-
marks, proverbs, directions for doing a great
many useful and curious things are also
lost.
So much do feel sure that have lost
that would give $50 apiece for the scrap
books of each and every year that | might
have made, from the time | was 10 until |
began to preserve things only few years
ago.
There is a gentleman who has kept
scrap books since he was s years old. He
is now 40, and has been arranging them
in volumes, with an index in The back of
each one. You would hardly think that
the earlier would be of much use to him.
But they are He often amuses himself
as he reads them, for he sees how little he
knew when he was little but also finds
little that he still thinks valuable. Besides,
his children are much interested to see
what their father had collected and pasted
in books The older he grows the more
useful the books become. He can go to his
books and in few minutes get informa-
tion about everything that has happened
in his whole life-tell you about the civil
war, the Crimean war, the Italian war,
the overthrow of Louis Napoleon, and
many other things just as they were pub
lished in the papers at the time the event
happened.
His scrap book also contains many funny
things, which provoke smile and often
a merry laugh, as he reads them to his
family in the long winter evenings. The
children would rather hear him read from
his scrap book than from the newest story.
If you have no scrap book, get one, and
put in it whatever pleases you. If you
have one, and have not used it, take it up
again. Iassure you that you will be very
glad of it afterward.
You can buy one very cheap. Some
require paste, and one, invented by Mark
Twain, and sold in book stores, is arranged
like postage stamps. All you have to do
is to wet it and lay on what you wish to
save,
If you have the money, get one of this
kind 1t is cleaner and less troublesome.
The others, however, will do well enough.
A bottle of mucilage is all you need. Only
you must be careful not to drop any of the
sticky stuff on the pages, or they viii stick
together; when you open them the surface
of the paper will pull off and deface the
reading.
If you have no money to buy scrap
book, or do not live where they are sold,
one can be made by taking any old, useless
book and cutting out two leaves out Of the
three close down to the back, but not
close enough to cause the book to come
to pieces. Then on the remaining leaves
you can paste, using both sides. This will
make three thicknesses, and the book
will close as before,
It is good idea to keep q scrap book
hop1xr Whap ant Orf brncr